Historic Hood River

Notes

This is a good example of one of the personal images from the W. D. Rogers collection we recently received.  It is captioned “My brothers/ Oak, Rex and Cree Rogers/ 1908”.  I initially thought that meant the annotations in the collection were made by Miles Rogers– except he died in 1905 at age 6.  That leaves siblings by other marriages.  William Daniel Rogers did not leave a simple family tree.  It appears he had three or possibly four wives.  Daisy Ellen was his second wife, with whom he had four sons, one named after Daisy’s father Oak Sutton.  Several of the family members went by middle names, but not always.  We have several images of W.D. and Daisy with their friend Mary Laura Metcalf, who in 1919 became W.D.’s third wife and step mother to the four boys.  She appeared in one census as Laura Rogers and another as Mary Rogers.  Meanwhile Daisy married Clyde Havens and continued to live in Hood River until her death in 1929.

I am not sure why W. D. took stereo card images for his family collection.  Perhaps some were intended to be sold, or perhaps he just liked the effect.  It’s fortunate for us, though, because they are mounted on stiff cardboard and we always have two versions of each image in case one has been damaged.

I believe the Rogers family lived near the Thomson family on Cascade Avenue.  We previously saw this post of the old armory on Cascade at 9th.  We now know these folks are W. D.’s father Elisha Rogers, his wife Daisy, his future wife Mary Laura Metcalf, and three of his sons.  Sally Donovan’s historic structure survey notes W.D. lived at 819 Cascade in 1910 (though it says his wife’s name was Maggie).  I think the address was correct but the name may be a nickname.

Perhaps we should set all this detective work aside and enjoy a fun image of three Hood River boys playing in their yard almost 120 years ago.  For extra credit try to view this card in 3D.  Hold a piece of paper or cardboard along the line between the images, and try to relax you focus until you see three houses.  Then focus on the middle one, and with luck you will be able to appreciate Roger’s masterful use of his stereo camera, with the boys in the foreground, the house in the background, and the picket fence providing a reference to divide foreground and background.  Just don’t blame me if you get a headache from eye strain.

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